"Books for Babies" was established in our community by the Woman Educator Service Organization (formerly Delta Kappa Gamma) to promote earlier reading to newborns and infants, based on the scholarship indicating that earlier exposure to books and reading leads to profound lifelong education outcomes. At our request, and with their kind permission, we relaunched their program in April 2021 to also promote earlier enrollment in Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

The program provides every child born at United Memorial Medical Center (or anywhere in Genesee County, by request at the library) with a tote bag containing:

• A new, age-appropriate board book (Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon at this time)
• A nursing bib with the Read to Me graphic, so that any caregiver might see the bib and begin reading books to babies earlier than otherwise
• A handout giving simple early literacy guidelines and milestones, pointers for new parents to other early literacy resources, and free registration instructions for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library

"Books for Babies" is generously supported by the Kiwanis Club of Batavia. 
https://www.bataviakiwanis.org/.

Did you know that the presence of books in a home has a greater influence on a child's lifelong learning outcomes than their parents' income, nationality, or level of education?  Having as few as 20 books in the home has a significant impact on propelling a child to higher lifelong education levels and earnings, potentially breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty -- and the more books you add, the greater the benefit!

The Library G.I.F.T. Program (Generate Imagination in Families Today) is dedicated to making new or gently used books available to children and their families in our area, and to raising awareness of the lifelong benefits of early childhood literacy.  Bright boxes and shelves of GIFT books are located at agencies and businesses in Batavia.  Children can take a book from the shelf to bring home, read, and keep!

Want to donate?
Donate new or gently used children’s books in the purple crates at the Richmond Memorial Lobby.

Want to volunteer?
Contact the Youth Services team at 585-343-9550 x 4.

GIFT PROGRAM LOCATIONS:

• Agri-Business Child Development (ABCD)
• Golden Coin 582 E Main Street
• Free Little Library: Trumbull Parkway
• Free Little Library: Swan Street
• Free Little Library: Montclair Avenue
• YWCA  301 North Street 
• All Babies Cherished 445 Ellicott Street 
• GCASA Recovery Station :5256 Clinton Street Road
• GCASA Child Watch : 14 Harvester Avenue
• Glow YMCA : 209 E Main Street
• Three Little Birds Pediatrics : 301 North Street

The Dolly Parton Imagination Library (DPIL) is a 60 volume set of books sent to children, in their homes, one book per month from birth to age 5, to keep, for free!  The DPIL initiative is funded by the Richmond Memorial Library for residents of the Batavia City School District, and by independent local funders coordinated by the Richter Family Foundation in other parts of Genesee County.  Click here to register a child or to see if DPIL is available in your area; or contact the Richter Family Foundation at  richterfamilyfoundation@hotmail.com to support the initiative in other parts of Genesee County.

"We believe in the We Need Diverse Books movement and support their efforts to produce changes in the children's publishing industry.  We support the movement's definition of diversity: We recognize all diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA, Native, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities." http://www.diversebooks.org 

August 2^nd: Isabel Allende was born on this day in 1942. Allende is Chilean writers whose stories honor the lives of women and combine myth and historical events. She has sold more than 75 million books.

August 4^th: Barack H. Obama, the 44^th and first African American president of the United States, was born on this day in 1961.

August 6^th: Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as the first Supreme Court Justice of Hispanic descent on this day in 2009.

August 9^th: International Day of the World’s Indigenous People.

August 9^th & 10^th: Islamic New Year: Celebrated on the first day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. Islam is the world’s second largest religious group with over 1.9billion devotees.

August 14^th: Navajo Nation Code Talkers Day: in 1942, the U.S. Marines recruited Navajo men to transmit messages in a code based on the Navajo language during WWII combat operations.

August 15^th: National Liberation Day of Korea celebrates the end of the decades-long Japanese occupation of Korea. It is the only holiday celebrated in both North & South Korea.

August 18^th: Roberto Clemente, the first Latino in professional U.S. baseball to reach 3,000 hits, was born on this day in 1934.

Take a stroll down memory lane to see many years of Children's Programs!